With so much money at stake it is no wonder online bingo games have become so popular in recent years. New and experienced players are attracted to online bingo sites by the huge progressive jackpots on offer.

Let’s take at look what you can win by playing cyber bingo. We’ll also consider how much it costs to play online.

What you can win:

There are usually at least two ways to win at these games. When you play an online bingo game you stand a chance of winning the prize pool and/or the jackpot.

Every time a player buys a bingo card a percentage of the purchase is placed into the total prize pool. That means that every player is contributing to the size of the prize fund. The prize pool grows as more and more bingo cards are bought.

To win the prize pool you need to be the first player to complete your card. Prize pools are dependent on the number of active players in the bingo hall and the cost of the bingo tickets. More players usually mean larger prize pools.

The jackpot is usually a progressive jackpot and a very small percentage of cost of every ticket is added to the total jackpot fund. To win these huge progressive jackpots you’ll need to complete your online bingo card within a certain number of balls.Progressive jackpots can be as big as $2000 or more.

What it costs:

For many new bingo players one of the first questions asked is, “how much does it cost?”. Well the beauty of the game is that it is really simple to learn and really cheap play but you stand a chance of winning big prizes.

Let’s start with Google the internet search engine. Type in online casino and it brings back more than 27 million websites. The shear volume for the term online casino reflects how many people have vested interests in the gaming industry and how popular online casinos have become. The first online casinos first made their appearance during 1996 and a mere US$17 million was wagered, compared to US$3 billion by 2000.

It is estimated today that more than a trillion dollars gets spent online each year with online casinos worldwide. Bear Stearns, a leading worldwide investment banking and securities trading and brokerage firm, estimates that during 2003 more than US$ 6 billion had been spent on online casinos by US gamblers alone! With the growing adoption of broadband internet this online pool of gamblers increases each year.

With online casinos there has also been the expansion of online advertising to gamblers, which according to the BBC places gambling advertisers as the fifth largest advertisers on the internet. Online casinos make use of two types of software. Those that you can download and install onto your computer and the true online casinos where you gamble on the interface of the online casinos web page. Each party makes their choices of how they wish to interact online. With all this sophisticated software, how do online casinos compare to your average brick and mortar casino? Each has their advantages. In an online casino you can play more than one poker game at a time or even gamble on more than one game at a time. In a normal casino this would not be physically possible. The advantage of any real casino compared to an online casino is that you can always judge the physical reaction of the players around the table.

With an online casino it is impersonal and you would never be able to guess the cards the other person is holding. Online casinos have made great strides in trying to mimic the feel of a real casino in the fashion of the bricks and mortar casinos. They have flashy web pages and music to lure you to play. Domain names in it self have become a big issue with the purchase of misspelled domain names for online casinos.

A recent dispute with the domain name of Sportsodds springs to mind. This domain name was registered by their competitor to drive traffic to the competitor’s webpage’s. This ended in a legal dispute. Online casinos are big business judging from the amount of money that gets placed on bets and by the amount of money being spent on it. Where there is big money, there will always be disputes.

Casinos use to be down the road or in your next big town. That has changed in the 21st century. With the advent of online casinos the casino is now in your home. Better yet, if you are reading this, you are already at the casinos doorstep.

The Aussie Millions tournament is the highest paying poker tournament in the Southern Hemisphere, attracting top players from around the world. This tournament is the crown jewel of Aussie poker and is the most prestigious tournament in Australia.

Online casinos have many ways to “trick you” into gambling. One of the most common ways is offering casino bonuses, which can be divided into several categories. Let’s talk about match bonuses (or online casino sign-up bonuses) today, as it’s the most common online casino bonus.

Match bonuses are often seemingly big in numbers (sign-up bonus as big as $3000 is not a rare thing to see nowadays). Many of these bonuses are very tricky, making withdrawing your winnings as hard as possible. Several players have quit playing at those casinos after they’ve understood that there’s no easy way to gain profit with this bonus. They feel that they’ve been tricked. Hell yeah, I can’t blame them!

Some of these match bonuses really are absurd. Even though, players in these days are not retarded – many of them know that the $888 “free money” means cosmic deposits and serious betting activity with real money, leading us to a fact that in the end you’re probably back to ZERO, angry and have no plans to return there.

Online casinos and poker rooms are extremely cautious giving bonuses away. Usually you as a player are not allowed to play blackjack, roulette and craps with your bonus money. And often you can’t withdraw your winnings if you have less than 10x bonus gathered on your casino account. My personal best has been 134 dollars with $16 dollars no deposit bonus money… of course, I gambled it down to zero. I was 26 bucks short to withdraw.

Some casinos (not the ones I prefer!) can afford those high bonuses only because they have low payouts. Not many online gamblers look at payouts when choosing a casino, so beware!

In some cases match bonuses can be used against casinos, but be sure to learn the rules before you start any monkeygambling.

The Internet continues to evolve and create more entertainment options almost on a daily basis. So it comes as no surprise that some of your favorite casino games can now be found in online casino domains. And perhaps one of the more popular games found in online casinos is Poker.

There are numerous online chat and game rooms devoted to casino style Poker. Oftentimes, the style of play varies from site to site. Some of the more popular types of online Poker are: Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo, 5 Card Stud and 7 Card Stud, to name a few. Due to the fact that there are so many different online casinos featuring Poker rooms, there can be a plethora of different types of games to choose from.

There are several differences between the traditional form of Poker playing and participating in an online Poker game in a virtual casino. The first big difference is that there is a lack of the physical interaction that is so vital to a great Poker game. Body language is a big part of the game of Poker and is a missing component of online casinos.

However, in contrast, players have a better chance of success in an online casino, particularly with online Poker games, as they are able to maintain more than one hand at a time. Many times, savvy players will participate at several different tables within the online casino to increase their chances for winning. Players are also often allowed to enter into the game with more reasonable bets and are often able to catch tips and explanation with the casino’s website features. This can come in handy when establishing which type of game the player would like to enter.

Online casinos offer many different casino games. Just be sure to read all of the rules and regulations of each game before participating and as with any online venture, be sure that you are on a secured site, particularly when exchanging monetary information.

The best way to explain the principle is firstly to use whole number examples(many punters are baffled when they see fractions of goals or similar when first looking at spread betting – how can there be 2.3 goals?(we will explain later).

Lets choose cricket,or any sport where runs are made.The spread betting companies may decide that a batsman should make about 30 runs.They would therefore offer a spread of say 29 – 31.If you think that batsman would score more than that you would BUY,if you did not rate the batsman and thought he would score less you would SELL.(You would keep your stakes low in this market due to volatility.)

IN THIS EXAMPLE THE BATSMAN SCORES 51

If you BUY for $1 – you will win $20 (you bought at 31,result was 51 – the batsman scored 20 more runs than buy offer)
if you SELL for $1 – you will lose $22(you sold at 29,result was 51 – the batsman scored 22 runs more than sell offer)

The beauty of spread betting is the odds change all the time,so you can close a bet at any time and take your profit,or cut your losses,or alternatively sit back and watch your profits grow(or losses)right through till the end.

Now to look at fractions in spread betting – this can be,and can remain baffling to many players- lets look at a soccer match – TOTAL GOALS.- that is the number of goals in a football match.

The spread betting firms are offering total goals spread of 3.5 – 3.8 goals.Obviously you can not have 3.5 goals.What the odds imply is the estimate is between 3 and 4 goals,with a slight prefernce for 4 goals(the spread is closer to 4 than 3).Your stakes in this market will be higher as there is less volatility.

IN THIS EXAMPLE THE SCORE IS 2 – 0 – TOTAL GOALS = 2

If you BUY for $100 you will LOSE $180 (you bought at 3.8,result was 2 – the total goals were 1.8 less buy offer- $100 times 1.8 = $180)
if you SELL for $100 you will WIN $150(you sold at3.5,result was 2 – the total goals were 1.5 less than sell offer – $100 times 1.5 = $150.

The spread betting firms make their profits from the gaps between the buy and sell figures – if they get it spot on,they get a small profit from BOTH the buyers and seller.

Something to bear in mind when spread betting – human nature means most players have an inclination to BUY – they do that because there is no upper limit for profits,unlike selling,when you know your maximum win.Buyers are always hoping for that freak high scoring game for that elusive big hit.

Of course the spread betting companies know this and always pitch there spreads a little higher than they want them to be(they cannot go too high as the big hitters would step in and sell aggresively),so always approach a market with a view to SELL ,and only consider buying after selling has been discounted after careful thought.

As alway there is a particular warning for punters before they start spread betting – be very careful.It is an extremely volatile form of betting,and you should always be aware of your liabilities at all times,also play one market at a time and closing before opening another.

However spread betting is great fun with ingenious betting opportunities on offer – with such a vast range of bets try to find a niche where you can become experienced and knowledgable.